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Friday, March 25, 2016

Bio: Leeann Betts
writes contemporary suspense, while her real-life persona, Donna Schlachter,
pens historical suspense. No Accounting
for Murder and There Was a Crooked
Man, books 1 and 2 in her By the Numbers series, released in the fall of
2015 Book 3, Unbalanced, released in
January. Book 4, Five and Twenty
Blackbirds, is due in April, with more planned for later dates. If you like
accountants or are an accountant, check out Counting
the Days: a 21-day devotional for accountants, bookkeepers, and financial
folk. Leeann and Donna have penned a book on writing, Nuggets of Writing Gold, and Donna has published a book of short
stories, Second Chances and Second Cups.
You can follow Leeann at www.AllBettsAreOff.wordpress.com
and Donna at www.HiStoryThruTheAges.wordpress.com
. All books are available at Amazon.com in digital and print, and at
Smashwords.com in digital.

Welcome back, Leeann.
God has really been moving in your writing life. What do you see on the
horizon?

From where I’m sitting right now, more book ideas than I
have time. But that’s a good thing. It seems that every morning when I sit down
for my quiet time, another idea comes during prayer or scripture reading. But
for the short term, I’m investing some time in learning social media. I’ve
decided to focus on blogging, for myself and for others, Twitter, and Facebook.
In that order.

Tell us a little
about your family.

My real-life persona, Donna Schlachter, is the oldest of
five siblings and the daughter of a nurse and engineer. Rather a standard
family, actually. However, Leeann would be the youngest of three, with two
older brothers. Donna would love to have an older brother.

Has your writing
changed your reading habits? If so, how?

Absolutely. Now I read with a red pen and a highlighter—not
really, but mentally, I do. I pick out typos, passive language, and so on. And
I note beautiful passages that I wished I’d written.

What are you working
on right now?

Right now I’m working on getting my fourth book in the By
the Numbers series, Five and Twenty
Blackbirds. Release date is slated for April 30th. Next will be Book 5, Broke, Busted, and Disgusted which is
scheduled to release November 30th. And after that—who knows?

What outside
interests do you have?

My husband and I are very involved in an international
ministry whose goal is to reach the lost for Christ through prayer, personal
witnessing, and scripture distribution. Apart from that, we love to travel.

How do you choose
your settings for each book?

With the By the Numbers series, I decided to base my main
character in a small east coast town, since I grew up in a place full of small
east coast towns. But I didn’t want her to get stuck there, so I try to
alternate each book with one set at home, the next set somewhere I’ve visited
that I thought would make a great setting for a story. Book 3, Unbalanced,
is set back in Bear Cove, Maine, and Book 4, Five and Twenty Blackbirds, is set in a town in Arizona similar to
where my father and stepmother, who I dearly loved, were married.

If you could spend an
evening with one historical person, who would it be and why?

I would love to spend an evening with Agatha Christie, to
pick her brain about the stories she didn’t write and why, because I expect she
had a hundred of them, at least.

What is the one thing
you wish you had known before you started writing novels?

I wish I’d known that the process didn’t stop with the
writing, that I couldn’t simply write the book and someone else would take it
from there.

What new lessons is
the Lord teaching you right now?

He is teaching me stick close and listen for His voice. I’m
reading Jesus Calling as part of my quiet
time, and this point is reiterated every single day. I guess I’m a slow
learner.

What are the three
best things you can tell other authors to do to be successful?

The first thing is to have a teachable heart. Be willing for
the Lord to work in your life, in your writing, in your learning. Attend
conferences. Submit to a critique group. Enter contests. And listen to the
feedback. The second thing is to connect
with others. Join a writer’s group. Write in a community. Reach out to both
readers and writers. Care about people. And the third thing is to write. You
can spend all your time at conferences, learning. You can spend your day on
Facebook and Twitter. You can guest blog all over the place and never write one
word of the story or book that God has given you to write. You are the only
person who can pen what He has called you to write. And always remember:
writers write.

Amen to that. Tell us
about the featured book.

Unbalanced is the third book in the cozy mystery series
featuring Carly Turnquist, forensic accountant. She finds herself knee-deep in
wedding preparations and preparing to testify in a court trial, when she spots
the town’s bank being robbed. However, nobody else seems to notice, and when
she starts investigating, people start avoiding her—again. Then her husband’s
long lost brother turns up on her doorstep, only to disappear shortly after,
leaving his young son behind. And then somebody seems determined to keep the
wedding from happening. Carly’s sleuthing alarm goes into overtime as she tries
to save her credibility and her family in the bargain.

Please give us the
first page of the book.

If not for her son's wedding, this would be the happiest
time of Carly Turnquist's life.

She loved her career as a forensic accountant, tracking down
assets, including cash, bank accounts and stocks, and proving legitimate
ownership. For most people, working all day collating the evidence file for her
last client, a brokerage firm that suspected one of its account managers of
embezzling funds, would have left them tired and cranky.

But Carly Turnquist, snoop extraordinaire, was on the case.
She successfully unwound the convoluted trail of fraud and deceit, confirmed
that the account manager was indeed guilty of stealing over a million dollars
in the past year. She made recommendations for improved internal audit
practices to ensure this didn't happen again. The result was the trial was on
the court docket, and Carly had been served a subpoena to testify less than a
week after the wedding.

No, work was invigorating. What really got her goat was she
was stuck preparing dinner by herself. Mike was still working in their basement
office on a program for a client. Her stepson Tom and his fiancée Sarah had
pulled into the driveway just minutes before she was ready to put the food on
the table. The handsome couple walked toward the house, hand in hand. Sarah
tossed back her hair, laughing at something Tom said to her. The peaceful and
happy picture they made brought a smile to Carly's lips.

Tom burst into the house, his nose in the air as he sniffed
for evidence of what was on the menu for dinner. His exuberance made the front
door slam open in the same boyish manner that had driven her crazy for years.

Before she could stop herself, those all-too-familiar words
flew from her lips. “Don't slam the door.”

Tom laughed in the same way that melted her heart when she’d
first met him over ten years before. “Sorry, Carly.”

Leave a comment for a chance to win a free copy of the book or ebook. You must follow these instructions to be in the drawing. Please tell us where you live, at least the state or territory. (Comments containing links may be subject to removal by blog owner.)

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If you’re reading this on Goodreads, Google+, Feedblitz, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, or Amazon, please come to the blog to leave your comment if you want to be included in the drawing. Here’s a link:

Hi Connie: I like cozies, too. When I first started writing about Carly, a lot of editors said it was boring because there wasn't enough blood and guts. But I just knew there had to be readers out there, like me, who didn't want to read about blood and guts, but who wanted more than a story about a missing hymn book or a bounced check. Good luck in the drawing.

Hi Loraine: Greetings, sister accountant :) I haven't seen many mystery series out there with any kind of accountant as the main character. As an accountant, I think we're wonderfully imaginative, intuitive, and intelligent. :) Thanks for stopping by, and good luck in the drawing.

I studied accounting years ago but never heard of a forensics accountant until the past year or two. This book sounds quite interesting. Although I spent my career in IT, I frequently used what I learned when I studied accounting.Edward A in VA

Hi Edward, Thanks for dropping by. Forensic accounting has come up a bit in recent years, and I think the craze for all things forensic might have sparked it. While most forensic accountants never deal with a dead body, Carly has a nose for mysteries that just won't let her quit! Forensic means "for open forum" and really has nothing to do with dead bodies but everything to do with the legal process and providing authoritative evidence and information for proving a case. I am also an accountant, and, like Carly, I love numbers! Good luck in the drawing.